Congressional stock trading, lobbying and money in politics

Evidence timeline

Where statements meet the record.

1. Occurred Apr 17, 2023

   official action

   Sherrod Brown: Matches stated direction

   His campaign says no member of Congress, and no member's spouse, should be able to trade stocks, and that members should not be able to become lobbyists after leaving office. In the Senate he was an original cosponsor of the ETHICS Act, S. 1171, in 2023, which would have barred members of Congress and their spouses and dependent children from trading or owning stocks; it was placed on the Senate calendar and never voted on. He cosponsored Senator Jeff Merkley's Ban Conflicted Trading Act in three Congresses: S. 3718 in 2018, S. 1393 in 2019 and S. 564 in 2021. None passed. Earlier he cosponsored the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, S. 1903, in 2011, and on February 2, 2012 voted Yea when the Senate passed the STOCK Act, S. 2038, 96 to 3 (Roll Call 14); it became Public Law 112-105 on April 4, 2012. That law says members of Congress are not exempt from the insider-trading laws and requires them to report their trades; it does not ban trading. Limit: Cosponsoring is not enacting, and none of the bills that would ban trading passed. The one law he voted for, the STOCK Act, is about insider trading and disclosure, which goes the way of his position without being the ban he now calls for. These answer the stock-trading half of the position; this desk did not search his record on the lobbying ban.

   Friends of Sherrod Brown Friends of Sherrod Brown Congress.gov Congress.gov Congress.gov Congress.gov Congress.gov Congressional Record, U.S. Government Publishing Office Congress.gov